Baking Soda Paste and Sunlight Are the Fix

The most reliable way to deodorize a plastic lunch box that smells like last week’s fish curry is to scrub it with a baking soda paste, let it sit overnight, then park it in direct sunlight for a few hours.

Baking soda is the workhorse here. Mix three parts baking soda with one part water to make a thick paste, smear it all over the inside including the lid and the rim, and close it. Leave it for at least eight hours. The paste pulls the smelly oils out of the plastic instead of just masking them with lemon scent.

The sunlight is the part most people skip, and it’s the one that actually kills the odor. UV light breaks down the molecules causing the smell. After you rinse the paste off, put the box outside, upside down, in direct sun for an afternoon. If you live somewhere with weak sun, give it a second day.

If the smell is really baked in, do the paste again and add a splash of white vinegar to the rinse water. Also, stuff a few sheets of crumpled newspaper inside when you store it—newspaper absorbs odors too. But honestly, the paste plus sun handles almost everything.

And after you go through this twice, you’ll start packing your curry in a glass container instead.